3 Bedford Township Basketball Stars Named To All-Region Team

Recovered from a slow start to average 15 points and 5 assists while shooting 49 percent from the field and 44 percent on 3-point attempts (41-for-93). “If you look at it statistically, he’s the best shooter in Monroe County,” Monroe coach Frank Scheuer said.

JEREMIAH HARRIS

Bedford, 6-5, senior

Averaged 15 points and more impressively 15.5 rebounds per game. He broke Jackson Lamb’s school record with 341 rebounds. “Obviously that’s a school record that I think will stand for quite some time,” Bedford coach Nick Lowe said.

PLAYER OF THE YEAR: COLIN LAKE

They met each other as teammates on a youth football team.

Little did they know then that they would someday become the two most prolific scorers in the history of Monroe County Region basketball.

Last year Bedford’s Jackson Lamb became the Region’s all-time leading scorer among Michigan High School Athletic Association schools, taking the record away from Whiteford’s Eddie Sharpe, who had held it since 1998.

But Lamb’s reign as scoring king lasted only a year.

His former teammate wrested the crown away.

Colin Lake, a Temperance resident and Whiteford High School senior, is the new king.

“I played football with him when I was little,” Lake said of Lamb. “I knew he was a pretty good athlete. When we got older we played basketball together.”

They were a basketball odd couple with Lamb standing a foot taller. But both have an incredible talent for putting the ball in the basket. Lake, who wound up with 24 more points than Lamb at 1,925, has been named Monroe County Region Player of the Year.

Even though the Region was packed with talented players this season, Lake was a unanimous winner in voting by The Monroe News sports staff.

Last week he became the first player in Region history to make the Associated Press All-State three times.

His numbers are truly mind-boggling.

Lake set a Region record by averaging 31.8 points per game this season and carried a 23.3 average for his career. He set school records for free throws made (488) and attempted (636), steals (348) and 3-pointers (191).

He hit 42 consecutive free throws at one point this season.

Lake said he never expected to catch Lamb, but he scored 764 points in his senior season – a Region record for MHSAA schools.

“It’s a pretty great accomplishment,” he said. “I know what a great athlete and basketball player he was.”

Size never was a detriment to Lake on the basketball court.

“I’ve been little my whole life,” he said. “I played against guys 10 times bigger than me. I had to find different ways to shoot over them. I just use different angles, get the ball up high and use my body.”

The son of Kevin and Robin Lake of Temperance will continue finding ways to score against bigger players next year in college.

“I am looking at Division 3 and a couple of Division 2 schools,” he said. I want to go to a place where I can play a lot. I don’t want to sit on the bench.”

Lake says he didn’t track his progress as he climbed the Region scoring charts.

“I didn’t know I was close (to Lamb),” he said. “The only one I knew about was Eddie Sharpe. Everyone says he was the best player ever at Whiteford.”